Chapter 4 Socialization and Development

Socialization  Social interaction that teaches the child the intellectual, physical, and social skills needed to function as a member of society.  Each child slowly acquires a personality— the patterns of behavior and ways of thinking and feeling that are distinctive for each individual.

Deprivation and Development  Human infants need more than just food and shelter if they are to function effectively as social creatures.  Children who aren’t provided physical, mental, or emotional stimulation often develop attachment disorder—they re unable to trust people and to form relationships with others.

Moral Development  Research suggests that not every person is capable of thinking about morality in the same way.  Just as our sense of self and our ability to think logically develop in stages, our moral thinking develops in a progression of steps as well.  Class experiment…..

Kohlberg’s Stages of Morality  Stage 1. Orientation toward punishment.  Stage 2. Orientation toward reward.  Stage 3. Orientation toward possible disapproval by others.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Morality  Stage 4. Orientation toward formal laws and fear of personal dishonor.  Stage 5. Orientation toward peer values and democracy.  Stage 6. Orientation toward one’s own set of values.

Cooley’s: Looking-Glass Self  The process through which we develop a sense of self (Entirely a Social Product):  We imagine how our actions appear to others.  We imagine how other people judge these actions.  We make a self-judgment based on the presumed judgments of others.

Freud’s View of the Self The self has three separately functioning parts:  id - the drives and instincts every human inherits, but which remain unconscious for the most part.  Superego - society’s norms and moral values as learned primarily from our parents.  ego - tries to mediate in the eternal conflict between the id and the superego, and to find socially acceptable ways for the id’s drives to be expressed.

Agents of Socialization  The Family  Primary means of socialization in most societies  Varies according to geography, subculture, class, religion, ethnicity and different lifestyles of parents

 The School  Early interaction with others  Building social and inter-personal skills  Early experience in institutional environments Agents of Socialization

 Peer Groups  Great influence in lifestyle issues  Social support  Social pressure to conform

The Mass Media  98.2% of all households in the U.S. have television sets, with an average of 2 sets per home.  Schoolchildren watch an average 2 1/2 hours of television on school days and 4 hours and 20 minutes on weekends.  By the time most people reach the age of 18, they will have spent more waking time watching television than doing anything else.

Deviant Behavior and Social Control

Normal and Deviant Behavior  Norms and values make up the moral code of a culture.  The moral code of a culture - The symbolic system in terms of which behavior takes on the quality of being “good” or “bad,” “right” or “wrong.”  Deviant behavior is behavior that fails to conform to the rules or norms of the group in question.

What is deviant behavior?

What is Deviant Behavior?  From the sociological perspective, deviance is seen as relative to the values of any given culture. However, there are certain acts that are almost universally accepted as being deviant.  Genocide  Parent-child incest

Functions of Deviance  Prompts the group to organize in order to limit future deviant acts.  Helps clarify for the group what it really does believe in.  Teaches normal behavior by providing examples of rule violation

Social Control  Mechanisms of social control A way of directing or influencing members’ behavior to conform to the group’s values and norms.  Internal means of control Operates on the individual even in the absence of reactions by others.

Social Control  External Means of Control Other people’s responses to a person’s behavior – rewards and punishments  Sanctions  Rewards and penalties used by a group’s members to regulate an individual’s behavior.  Positive sanctions - Actions that encourage the individual to continue acting in a certain way.  Negative sanctions - Actions that discourage the repetition or continuation of the behavior.

Formal and Informal Sanctions  Formal sanctions are applied in a public ritual.  Example: Awarding a prize or announcing an expulsion.  Many social responses to a person’s behavior involve informal sanctions, or actions by group members that arise spontaneously with little or no formal direction.

The Emergence of Laws  The consensus approach assumes laws are a formal version of people’s norms and values.  Example: People generally agree that stealing is wrong. Laws emerge that provide penalties for those caught violating the law.  The conflict approach assumes that the elite use their power to enact laws that support their economic interests and go against the interests of the lower class.

Crime  Crime is behavior that violates a society’s legal code.  A violent crime is an unlawful event, such as homicide, rape, and assault, that may result in injury to a person.  A property crime is an unlawful act that is committed with the intent of gaining property but that does not involve the use or threat of force against an individual.

Property Crime  75% of all crime in the United States is a property crime.  In 2000:  3,444,000 households reported a burglary.  937,000 reported an auto theft.  19,297,000 reported a property crime.  Only 32.6% of all household thefts are reported.

Percentage of Selected Crimes Reported to the Police

Likelihood That Someone Will Be Arrested for a Known Crime

Likelihood That Someone Will Be Sent to Prison for a Known Crime

Age Distribution of Arrests, 2000 Age Group % of U.S. Population % of People Arrested Age 14 and younger – – – – –3989.8

Age Distribution of Arrests, 2000 Age Group % of U.S. Population % of People Arrested Age 65 and older

White-Collar Crime  Crimes committed in the course of one’s job for the purpose of personal or organizational gain.  Examples: embezzlement, bribery, fraud, theft of services and kickback schemes.  In 2000, federal prosecutors charged 8,766 defendants with white-collar crimes.

U.S. Homicide Solution Rates

Victimless Crimes  Acts that violate those laws meant to enforce the moral code.  Usually they involve the use of narcotics, illegal gambling, public drunkenness, the sale of sexual services, or status offenses by minors.

Criminal Justice in the United States  Every society that has established a legal code has also set up a criminal justice system—personnel and procedures for arrest, trial, and punishment—to deal with violations of the law.  The three main categories of our criminal justice system are the police, the courts, and the prisons.

Goals of Imprisonment  Prisons exist to accomplish at least four goals:  separate criminals from society  punish criminal behavior  deter criminal behavior  rehabilitate criminals

Women Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions, 1925–2004

Average Time Served for Various Types of Crime